Yisrael Beiteinu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman published a comprehensive plan yesterday (Sunday) for the future of the West Bank. According to the plan, Gaza and the West Bank should be separated, with efforts made to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and cancel the Oslo Accords, establish Israeli territorial contiguity between the settlement blocs, and transfer Areas A and B to Jordanian control. In the plan, he explains that in light of global public opinion, international recognition of a Palestinian state is an almost inevitable step: “If we do not take the initiative into our own hands, we will end up with a single Palestinian state under Hamas control.”
Lieberman stressed that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is not a relevant partner for cooperation. “I would like to remind you that he is a chronic Holocaust denier who has never retracted his statements, who refused to condemn the October 7 massacre, and who, contrary to the Oslo Accords, which allow the Palestinian Authority to maintain a police force of 12,000 armed personnel in Judea and Samaria [West Bank], expanded the armed force to approximately 60,000,” Lieberman wrote. “Abu Mazen is responsible for rampant incitement against the State of Israel, which begins in first grade in the Palestinian education system, continues in the Authority’s media, and ends with false lawsuits against Israel and IDF soldiers at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and other international institutions. Every month, he transfers approximately NIS 500 million to the families of terrorists.”
According to him, “The approval Netanyahu gave for parliamentary elections to be held in the Palestinian Authority on November 28 this year is handing Judea and Samaria [West Bank] to Hamas on a silver platter.” He said that this conduct by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “not surprising at all,” as he previously opposed Yisrael Beiteinu’s proposal to apply Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state is inevitable due to the loss of support for Israel among American public opinion,” Lieberman wrote. “Therefore, if we do not define the end goal and take the initiative into our own hands, our future will be determined by others.” He explains that as long as U.S. President Donald Trump remains in office, Israel will retain the American veto in the Security Council and the assurance that the United States will oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state without coordination with Israel. However, “in a little over two years, with a new president entering the White House, Republican or Democrat, the United States will recognize a Palestinian state and initiate a Security Council resolution that will make it a full member of the UN.”
According to Lieberman, there are four options for addressing the Palestinian issue and the future of the West Bank. “The first, advocated by Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and the Hilltop Youth, is to apply Israeli sovereignty over all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, turn Israel into a binational state, and assume responsibility for the day-to-day management of Palestinian lives in Khan Younis, Nablus, and Tulkarm,” Lieberman writes.
“The second option, advocated by Yair Golan, is a return to the 1967 borders, including in Jerusalem, and the establishment of a Palestinian state throughout the territory. The third option, advocated by Netanyahu, is to continue the policy of containment for approximately two and a half years, until the United States forces Israel to accept a Palestinian state.
“The fourth option, which I am proposing, is an Israeli initiative designed to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, dismantle the Palestinian Authority, and cancel the Oslo Accords. An upgraded London Agreement based on Israeli-Jordanian cooperation.”